Package Machine Blog

Guadalupe Ciccarello, is a graduate from Elisava in Barcelona, with a  Masters of packaging. Check out the full collection after the break.

“The idea of this pack was to create a different style and remarkable in products of haircare.  The picture communicates the action of the product directly to costumer, and inviting him to experience something new. The lettering is created from the  typography “Crazy” that interacts with the pack and the illustrations, giving a modern and unique style. The naming is directly related to the actions we take with our hair [CARE FIX FUN ]. The images evoke hair style for use the product mixed with the illustrations.”

“Lake Champlain Chocolates hooked up with recording artists Grace Potter and the Nocturnals for a first time collaboration between rock and roll and chocolate” Check it out after the jump!

“Place Creative Company of Burlington VT created the packaging design and marketing material for the special edition chocolate bar. Capturing the right balance was an interesting design challenge. ‘Grace wanted something that felt like a piece of classic rock memorabilia –  taking that idea and making it look delicious was a lot of fun’ said Keri Piatek, Design Director at Place Creative.”

Sustainability in wrapping has two important definitions. The first is sustaining your own business by making smart, well-executed business decisions. The second one refers to the impact your packaging process has on the environment. It involves thinking about your products and processes with a consideration for the environmental impacts those products and processes have on our planet and its inhabitants. Overwrapping is a more sustainable process and here is why.

To calculate the impact of your packaging process on sustainability, you should look at three process measures:
• Life Cycle Analysis
• Total Cost Assessment
• Total Cost of Ownership

When it comes to sustainability in wrapping, there are two environmental impacts to consider in addition to the total cost of ownership.
• energy consumption and efficiency of your process
• the material you use in your process

Energy consumption and efficiency of your process
Overwrapping is a very efficient energy user. Unlike shrink wrapping which requires a heat tunnel to shrink the loose film to the product, overwrapping uses heat only to weld seams. This means that the heat created and used is minimal.

The material you use in your process
Material used is a little tricky to think about.

Factors to weigh
• product protection and enhancement
• environmental impact of creating the wrapping material
• amount of material used in the process
• environmental impact of disposal of the material post-consumer or at intermediate point.

Overwrapping is again a more efficient way to wrap for several reasons.
• the kind of film it uses – Film choices.
• the amount of film it uses – Film information.

The kind of film overwrapping uses
Polyethylene film is the most commonly used film in shrink-wrapping. Polypropylene film is the most commonly used film in overwrapping and flow wrapping. Pound for pound, polyethylene is a more expensive film than polypropylene. And worse yet is more polyethylene film is used because it is first trimmed to get rid of the excess and then shrunk 20-25% to conform to the package it wraps.

Polypropylene film does not shrink. It is designed to wrap around a package with overlaps between ¼ and ½ inch. This overlap is enough to ensure a seal while minimizing film and energy consumption. It provides a nice gift-wrapped look to the package while being efficient in film use and energy consumption.

Total Cost Assessment
Total Cost Assessment is the calculation of the cost of all that goes into making a product. Some of these costs are internal and some are societal. Internal costs are those that the company bears to make the product. Sometimes society tries to push the costs back to the manufacturer, for example paying for environmental clean up. Some are still born by society such as municipal trash pick up or water purification. Total Cost Assessment tries to calculate all these costs since the payor can change from society to manufacturer.

Total Cost of Ownership
Total cost of ownership is a strictly internal calculation that includes the capital cost of equipment and the operating cost including materials cost, energy, and maintenance to make a comparison between one process or piece of equipment and another.